In this episode, I speak with Zak Witus, freelance journalist and activist. Zak discusses the unfolding events in the Gaza Strip, in which thousands of Palestinians, over the past several months, have demonstrated against the horrific conditions imposed on the Palestinian territory by the state of Israel. Over a 100 Palestinian demonstrators have been killed by Israeli forces, with over 1200 injured, during what has been called "The Great March of Return," a large scale protest that demands “that Palestinian refugees and their descendants be allowed to return to what is now Israel.”* Zak also goes over the recent decision made by the Trump Administration to move the US Embassy to the city of Jerusalem, and how this decision fits into the demonstrations in the Gaza Strip.

In the later half of this episode, Zak and I discuss his most recent piece in Truthout titled ‘Israel Continues Aggression Against Syria While Playing the Victim,’ an article that explores Israel’s belligerent and aggressive relationship with it’s neighboring nations, in particular Lebanon and most recently, and frequently, with Syria. To quote from the article: “[o]ver the past six years, Israel has launched at least 100 attacks against convoys in Syria that were allegedly carrying weapons (perhaps advanced missiles) to Hezbollah and other Shi’ite militias. In February, the Guardian reported that Israel had been conducting near weekly strikes in Syria for the past 18 months, and there’s little reason to think that the rate of attacks has since ebbed. These attacks, which escalated under Trump, target Syrian government forces, Hezbollah and, as of late, Iran.” What are the aims of the Israeli government in Syria? How does US President Nixon’s infamous “Madman Theory” describe the kind of behavior coming from the state of Israel? Zak goes over this, and more, in this episode.

Zak is a freelance writer, and a recent graduate from the University of Michigan, where he studied Cognitive Science and Art History. His research and writing post-graduation have focused on US foreign policy and international relations, particularly the US role in the Arab-Israeli conflict and Israeli Occupation of Palestine. Zak presently lives in Jerusalem, and is participating in Achvat Amim (Solidarity of Nations), a service-learning program dedicated to the principle of self-determination for all peoples in the place that they call home. **

In this episode, I speak with Dmitry Orlov. This interview was recorded Sunday April 15, less than two days after the events discussed in this episode. The reason for the release of this episode outside of my normal release schedule, and on such short notice, is because of the nature of what is discussed in this interview with Dmitry.

Dmitry and I discuss the recent missile strikes by the US military in Syria, the Trump Administration, as well as the broader US military establishment's true intentions and objectives behind the strike, as well as what other major world powers (Russia in particular) are doing in response to this attack.

Dmitry presents this whole event within a broader geopolitical trend: the American Empire is fading. America's influence in the Middle East, in particular, has begun to dissipate, with Russia and other regional players aligning themselves outside of American control and influence. These nations have begun to nudge the United States out of its once dominant role on the international stage, and the response to this missile strike in Syria fits neatly within this trend.

I was personally worried that this event in Syria would spark an escalation that could potentially lead to a deadly exchange of nuclear weapons between world powers. While that is still on the table, Dmitry puts much of the details of this strike within the context of broader geopolitical trends. Things are not as they appear, my friends.

Dmitry is a Russian-American engineer and writer, who regular writes on subjects related to social and economic collapse, geopolitics, peak oil, Empire, and how to adapt in a time of converging crises manifesting on multiple fronts. Dmitry is the author of many books, including "The Five Stages of Collapse," "Shrinking The Technosphere," and "Everything is Going According to Plan."

Episode Notes:

- Please go and read Dmitry's bi-weekly updates on geopolitics, empire, and collapse, as well as purchase one of his several books he has written on these subjects, here: http://cluborlov.blogspot.com

- Purchase Dmitry's most recent book "Everything is Going According to Plan" here: http://a.co/hRfIL7k

- This episode features the audio from the video "Trump Hails Syria Strikes: Every One Hit Target" published by Associated Press. Video description: 'President Donald Trump praised his new national security adviser John Bolton for last Friday's air strikes in Syria. Speaking at an event on tax cuts in Florida, Trump called the strikes "genius," saying not one U.S. missile was shot down. (April 16)' Source: https://youtu.be/8W9jS3-gt7w

- The song featured in this episode is "Axolotl" by The Veils from the album Total Depravity.

Carne Ross is a former British diplomat, Middle East and WMD expert, who resigned in 2004 after giving what was then secret information to a British inquiry into the Iraq War. Carne became acutely aware that the information being presented to the public leading up to the Iraq War was misleading and false. After he left his position as a diplomat, he founded the world's first non-profit diplomatic advisory group, Independent Diplomat, which advises democratic countries and movements around the world.

This year, Carne was featured in the documentary Accidental Anarchist, a film that follows Carne's path from British diplomat to an advocate for Anarchism. This film follows Carne's journey to find and eventually witness anarchist principles in action during the Occupy movement, the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930's in Catalonia, as well as contemporarily by the Kurds in Rojava. Rojava is a region in northern Syria, that during the chaotic Syrian civil war was able and continues to practice anarchism effectively while simultaneously fighting off the Islamic State as well as maintain autonomy in that region.

In this conversation, Carne and I briefly discuss his path toward Anarchism, the complexity of the Syrian Civil War and the ethics surrounding intervention in that conflict, as well as the recent referendum in Catalonia to secede from Spain and become an independently governed nation, and what this means for the future of the nation state in the 21st century.

April 6th 2017, President Trump ordered an assault on Syrian government targets, launching 59 Tomahawk missiles in the first direct and major attack against Bashar Assad's government. The implications are vast and frighting. Seeing as Russia is a very close ally with the Syrian government, and has been aiding the government militarily for over a year now, it's not hard to fathom why direct confrontation with the Assad Regime might be a decision that leads us further down a path towards nuclear war.